Thursday, September 1, 2005

shh....

Sure seems quiet these days. The other foreign teachers left already. We're just puttering about until Monday when it'll be our turn to say goodbye.

 

Last night my friend had a get together at her place, just a few friends, snacks, and of course drinks. Ended up going to Dave's bar, which isn't the name of the place and I have no idea why we call it that, and sitting outside for a few hours. Stayed until 4am. Gotta love these places that will stay open as long as you keep buying beer.

 

At one point my friend Helen was really jittery and bouncing her leg around, and it was driving me bonkers. I gently put hand on her knee and said "shhh.... shhhh". Her boyfriend asked me why I did that and what it meant. I said it's just to calm someone down, get them to relax, be quiet etc. He said that's usually what mothers say to their little boys to get them to pee. Hahaha! Funny cultural differences. Kind of reminds me of when I was in Egypt and the people did this strange hissing sound when they wanted to get past you. Like we would ring a bell on a bicycle or maybe clear our throat to let someone know we were there. Obviously we all expect languages to be different, but it's interesting that even body language and indistinct sounds can have different meanings too!

4 comments:

hellachella said...

Hissing? I\'ve never heard of that. That is very interesting. More on cultural differences please.

LeighAnne said...

Hey, I have a new site now, so, come by and visit! I need all the visitors I can get :)....Have a good one!!LeeLee

Laoch said...

Knee touching!!!

islandgirl said...

LOL....isn\'t it funny the differences....here the guys \'hiss\' (like we would to tell a cat it is bad) to get a girls attention, their version of a wolf whistle I guess....I have found they also will do it to get a waiter or bartenders attention as well.....doesn\'t go over well with the expats!!!

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